Religion

In a Halachic Q&A, Rabbi Efrati of Efrat determined that the designation of "brother" to a goy is incorrect.

Users of a Shariah-compliant credit card from the United Arab Emirates can charge their purchases according to Islamic law, direct their prayers toward Mecca, and even put a little aside for the Hajj.

A coalition of religious groups is calling on the Washington DC Metro to donate proceeds from an ad campaign suggesting Muslims are savages to an organization supporting human rights.

A lawsuit filed Thursday by Jewish organizations and three rabbis argues that a new NY City rule requiring parental consent for metzitzah b'peh, a post-circumcision ritual that involves oral suction in order to stimulate blood flow in the traumatized organ, violates the First Amendment.

Police in Israel have reportedly arrested a rabbi suspected of stealing seven Torah scrolls from the synagogue of Moshav Brosh near Be’er Sheva.

He smuggled goods to Syria in the midst of its civil war and to Iran in the face of international sanctions, but Rabbi A.H. is no arms dealer or James Bond. He’s just a guy selling lulavs.

Police in Budapest have arrested two young men after they allegedly assaulted the leader of a Jewish congregation.

The Dutch government is drafting a decree that would give it veto power over anyone who wants to practice ritual slaughter, or sh'chitah, in the Netherlands.

There was love in the air of Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon.

Rabbi Cherlow said that it is possible that the great concession of Temple Mount began with the late IDF General Motta Gur and his paratroopers.

Tens of thousands of Christians from 60 countries around the world are participating in Thursday’s “Feast of the Tabernacles” march around Jerusalem.

Mordechai Ben David, Chaim Yisrael, Udi Davidi and Shlomo Katz performed to a packed audience on Wednesday in the Jewish biblical city of Hebron, burial ground of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah, and Jewish ancestors and notables Jesse, Ruth, and Avner.

A group of 30 Jews who regularly ascend to the Temple Mount after conducting ritual preparations in order to pray and assert a Jewish presence at Judaism’s holiest site were attacked in the morning on Thursday by a group of Arabs shouting out to “Kill the Jews!”

The nuclear reactor in Dimona, for the first time in its long and hush hush history, will feature a full fledged synagogue.

This Sukkot, the residents of the city of Kfar Saba are not only communing with nature by sitting in the biblically-assigned booths present throughout the rest of Israel, but by doing so in a green-friendly way.

In a show of solidarity with movements seeking to preserve respect for Islam, a Moscow ruled on Monday that the anti-Islam film “Innocence of Muslims” may not be shown in all of Russia.

Ritual circumcisions have resumed in the Cologne region of Germany, ending a controversy started in a Cologne court in June, when judges decided ritual circumcision constituted “bodily harm” to boys and religious coercion.

The Toldot Aharon hasidic group says it will not enforce gender segregation in the streets of the Jerusalem religious neighborhood of Mea Shearim over the Sukkot holiday.

A Quaker group has removed a French and an American company from its financial portfolio due to what it calls the companies’ involvement with Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land.

The aim of the Israelis, according to this group, is to transform these areas into segregated prayer enclosures and synagogues for Jewish women.

A spokesman for German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said his office is working on an outline for new legislation that will permit circumcision of minor males after a controversial court decision in the summer that criminalized the rite.

The Jewish cemetery south of Prague has been vandalized, with over 26 tombstones being knocked over, according to Czech police.

An estimated 85,000 people are expected to arrive at the Kotel plaza on Monday night for the final recitation of the Selichot prayers prior to Yom Kippur, the holiday of atonement.

An Iranian cleric who warned a woman to conform to standards of modesty and cover her eyes was subsequently beaten so badly by the offending female that he spent three days in the hospital.

The recurring uproar over the facts surrounding the life of Jesus now surrounds the discovery of an ancient papyrus bearing the words “Jesus said to them, my wife”.

As demands of reader participation go, this one was pretty high. You were supposed to share with us your real hopes for the new year, in an effort to impress God with our appeals as a group and—as a group—receive better attention. There is a Jewish concept of “The king’s glory is intensified by the size of His assembly,” meaning that in approaching God, the bigger the crowd, the better. But it had to be real, it had to be sincere. Here are a few of my favorites…

The White House said on Friday that it had asked YouTube, the online video sharing site, to review whether the video violated its terms of use.

At sundown this Sunday, the Jewish community here in the United States and all over the world will celebrate the start of the new year. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur mark a time of prayer and self-reflection, and offers Americans of all faiths an opportunity to focus on what unites us instead of what divides us, to work together to make this a more perfect union and to continue the work of repairing the world.

Approximately 300 protesters across the religious spectrum demonstrated in eastern Berlin in favor of religious freedom and the decriminalization of circumcision in Germany.

The first Jewish Israeli male couple to marry has filed for divorce in a Tel Aviv rabbinical court that never recognized the marriage. It is unknown if the rabbinical court will provide a divorce for Uzi Even, the first openly gay Knesset member, and Dr. Amit Kama, Ynet reported.